Photography Project: Process - The Doors

 Today, finally, the sun was shining and I was ready to take the first half of my photography project.  The idea here is that I wanted to take pictures of significant doors, these are doors that matter that I have walked through, sat in, lived through, doors that changed things, doors that live inside me.  I needed the doors...

I set my camera at 200 ISO, on aperture priority as I was wandering about I needed to capture the doors without people or interference, some of the doors had changed, one was under construction (or perhaps deconstruction). I shot in both colour and black and white however in my mind I saw them in black and white. 

Now my eyesight is not as good as it used to be I find the images hard to see once I have taken them on the screen so it is a bit like when I started I am unsure how well they have come out until I sit and process them.  

On my sojourn this morning, in the sunlight, I spoke to two young men from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, talking about God and belief and they invited me to their church on Sunday, I then took some more photos and wandered to the health shop where he man in the shop when I was buying a bag for my healthy vegan treats said that the reason they are called handbags is because after battle the hands of men would be collected by women in the bags and this is how they knew the number of the dead.  I checked  this out and this is apparently true, they actually used to cut them off as it was easier to just carry the hands. I knew handbags were a little sinister!

I wandered home past the Hare Krishna people singing and the preacher, preaching and I was glad that I live somewhere so diverse, in a democracy where we can have the freedom that we have. 

I then added my images to a file on my desktop and On Photoshop created contact sheets 

I wanted them all to be portraits as the other half of this project is the self-portraits that I will complete shortly that go with the doors. 

Here are some of the images that I think will work well

This first image, is now, my own place, I have a wide aperture, shutter is quite slow as it was in shade so I overexposed by +7 - this worked quite well and the image is sharp.

I have never been in this place but I know this door, it is a shadow of another image a very long time agon in this door, I was smoking a cigar and sitting in this doorway, it was night and the scrapes to wall were prominent and dark.  This image is slightly soft and I will need to check for a sharper image, again slightly overexposed as it was in the shade and the shutter is slow which is why the slight blur, I will check other images however may reshoot this one. 

I lived here when I was a student, herthe light was good and very slight over exposure but I wanted the deepness of the door , the damage the battered heart

Here again the light was good, I underexposed to add more depth.  This door is contentious as I was unsure which was the original door on this street, it was to my solicitors when I got divorced - they are not there now - but neither am I.

This door to The Rutland and Derby has many connotations, for me, but now it is under construction - I think all the doors are consistent and will work together but I will work through these carefully to ensure I choose the best shot for each. 

This the first half - soon I will complete the second and I will see if my idea will work.....